Council answer football question with a straight bat!?

Last month local papers splashed on two Croydon councillors caught ball watching Crystal Palace playing Sunderland on their tablet during a full council meeting on a Monday evening. The story went national - The Daily Telegraph and The Sun covered it.

I spoke to an ex-councillor who had, "no sympathy for them because they could have sat on members seats under the public gallery" and thus avoided being caught with their shorts down.

At the time I felt Councillor Wentworth was in a tricky position as he was part of the 2014 intake, and thus should NOT be displaying such irreverent activity towards his constituents when technically a new recruit. Councillor Ryan on the other hand has a strong track record of hard work in Upper Norwood ward and could be forgiven for this indiscretion. I first stood against him in 2006. Back then his strong personal support resulted in his re-election whilst his fellow Labour councillors lost their seats.

I sent in a cheeky question which I think the councillor in charge of sport plays with a particularly straight bat!

CROYDON COUNCIL MEETING: MONDAY 25 JANUARY 2016 

PUBLIC QUESTION TIME 

WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

From Mr Shasha Khan  

Councillor Timothy Godfrey Cabinet Member for culture, Leisure and Sport  

Question No. PQ037-16  

If the Football Supporters Federation started a ‘Keep league matches on Saturday afternoons’ campaign in support of children who can’t get to watch football games on Monday nights, and of course other groups, would this council back such a campaign?  

Reply  

The Council is supportive of making football and other sports accessible and affordable to all supporters particularly for young people.  

As a result of the commercial issues that professional football has including those from TV to meet their broadcasting requirements the trend has been to have some weekday matches particularly on a Monday.  

Saturday afternoons is the traditional time for football matches as it enables supporters to attend with friends, as family groups and as part of the Football Community.  

Costs of attending matches is also a key issue for supporters and the Council welcomes initiatives by football clubs including its home Club Crystal Palace FC to reduce ticket prices and increase access to groups including young people. 

The Council is also supportive of local clubs such as Croydon FC and Croydon Athletic FC and would support initiatives to increase attendances by local football followers. 

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Tags croydon, greenparty

8th Annual Eco-Disco

The young ones dancing at the Eco Disco

Last Sunday was Sutton and Croydon Green Party's latest Eco-Disco fundraiser held at the Oval Tavern in Croydon.

As usual an eclectic mix of music was played including:

The Ugly Duckling
Let It Go - Demi Lovato
When Doves Cry - Prince
Bellowhead
Bat Out of Hell - Meatloaf

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Tags croydon, greenparty

Cabinet member answers written question on waste

CROYDON COUNCIL MEETING: MONDAY 7 DECEMBER 2015 PUBLIC QUESTION TIME WRITTEN QUESTIONS FROM MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC

From Mr Shasha Khan

To Councillor Stuart Collins Cabinet Member for Clean, Green Croydon

Question No. PQ055-15

The Viridor landfill site at Beddington Farmlands has a license that ends in 2023. The South London Waste Partnership was formed to deal with its waste locally, within Croydon, Sutton, Kingston and Merton. Why therefore will all the SLWP waste, including Croydon’s, be sent to a site near Heathrow?

Reply

As you would expect, Croydon and the South London Waste Partnership work to manage our waste as sustainably as possible. In the first instance this means that we reduce, reuse and recycle as much as possible. For waste that remains, landfill is the least sustainable option for disposal. While the local landfill option is available at Beddington Lane, the boroughs continue to deliver waste here and at the same time construction has started on the Beddington Lane Energy Recovery Facility. Through the Partnership’s contract with Viridor, residual waste has consistently been diverted from landfill where possible and in 2014/15, 20% of the Partnership’s waste went to the Lakeside ERF. The Partnership is exploring options for waste disposal for residual waste during the construction period for the ERF as, now that the facility will be completed later than initially anticipated, it may be necessary to have an alternative provision in place; this could include sending more waste to an alternative ERF for a brief period.

I asked the above question because Councillor Nick Mattey has calculated that the landfill cell space at Beddington Farmlands has almost come to an end. This link  reveals just how much space Viridor secured in 2004 when they purchased the site. The Pennon Group (Viridor's parent company) article states 4m cubic metres of consented capacity was purchased. The license Viridor obtained allowed them to deal with 400,000 tonnes of waste a year. The maths suggest that by 2014 the site must be close to capacity.

One can argue, Viridor's tactic was purchase  the site, acquire the extension - knowing there was practically no spare capacity past 2015, and then switch to an incinerator with a view to telling the public they would get their country park in 2017 - 6 years earlier - as a sweetener.


-------------------------------------------------- Tags croydon, greenparty